Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

77 percent of Californians Support Jerry Brown's School Funding Plan: Here Are Three Big Ideas to Make it Better

June 4, 2013, 11:58am

Lisa Snell

Weighted Student Funding for California

Three Reasons Governor Brown’s School Funding Plan is Better than the Status Quo and Three Big Ideas to Make the Plan Even Better

May 31, 2013

Lisa Snell

Governor Brown’s school finance plan for California is a step in the right direction: it simplifies school funding, gives school districts more autonomy, and focuses new resources on disadvantaged students. But the plan would be even better if it distributed weighted funding for disadvantaged students directly to schools on a per pupil basis, authorized school principals to spend that money as they saw fit, and introduced a modern school-level financial reporting system to ensure transparency and accountability.

Lessons for Gov. Brown’s California School Finance Plan

The governor's education reforms are good steps, but need to go further

May 15, 2013

Lisa Snell

Democratic lawmakers in Colorado just approved the first major overhaul of that state’s school finance system in 20 years. Colorado is moving to a more equitable and transparent funding system with strong accountability provisions that offer valuable lessons to California lawmakers.

Gov. Brown’s recently proposed “Local Control Funding Formula” would simplify school finance, offer school districts flexibility over more than 50 previously restricted funding streams, and provide more resources for disadvantaged students. Gov. Brown deserves credit — the proposal is a very good start. It is simpler, fairer, and more transparent than the state’s current haphazard school finance system.

Yet, there are serious issues the governor’s plan fails to address, including inequities at schools within the same district and a lack of transparent reporting of funding allocations at the school level.

 

New at Reason: Looking Back at the Last Year in Education Reform and School Choice

April 29, 2013, 9:00am

Leonard Gilroy

The rollout of Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2013 continues today with the release of the Education section, which which provides an overview of the latest on school choice, charter schools, student-based budgeting and more.

Weighted Student Formula in the States

Subsection of Annual Privatization Report 2013: Education

April 29, 2013

Lisa Snell

This subsection of Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2013: Education reviews developments over the last year in school choice.

Chicago Schools to Implement Student-Based Budgeting and Principal Autonomy

March 18, 2013, 4:45pm

Katie Furtick

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